Ton away to Airdrie. Saturday 28th February

[Deego]

56 minutes ago, Brian Skelton said:

Stuparevic should be offered training facilities to see where he is with his fitness if the forward line is obliterated we need someone in for sure.

Stuparevic should be offered whatever the fuck he wants at this rate.

[James]

I’m fed up hearing complaints about the referees tbh.

No one is out to get Morton FFS and many of these that the stand is howling about are understandable decisions. Not to mention some of these attempts at patter…

Fact is the first two goals today are basic mistakes. And while we look far better as an attacking threat under Murray, we have a soft underbelly. Much of which comes from playing two in centre midfield - in modern game it concedes too much space to the opposition and leaves you second to many loose balls.

Expect we may see Owens and Lopata-White at the back next week with Wilson into midfield with Gillespie and McPherson. Who knows who plays upfront now, daft tackle from Main knowing the kind of challenge there ref considers a red.

[Tubes]

Going on any kind of winning run in this league is the ultimate dream. We had the opportunity in the past week to really throw ourselves up into the mix above us. Opportunity is definitely not completely gone as it’s so tight but lots of hard work required to get there.

On Stuparevic, he was better than decent for us before his injury but let’s remember he had his struggles playing through the middle as a focal point for us too. Saying that, I’d absolutely have him back. 

[Drew Busby's Moustache]

2 hours ago, Brian Skelton said:

Stuparevic should be offered training facilities to see where he is with his fitness if the forward line is obliterated we need someone in for sure.

Oh stop it ffs.

[Mr.Blue]

2 hours ago, James said:

I’m fed up hearing complaints about the referees tbh.

No one is out to get Morton FFS and many of these that the stand is howling about are understandable decisions. Not to mention some of these attempts at patter…

Fact is the first two goals today are basic mistakes. And while we look far better as an attacking threat under Murray, we have a soft underbelly. Much of which comes from playing two in centre midfield - in modern game it concedes too much space to the opposition and leaves you second to many loose balls.

Expect we may see Owens and Lopata-White at the back next week with Wilson into midfield with Gillespie and McPherson. Who knows who plays upfront now, daft tackle from Main knowing the kind of challenge there ref considers a red.

Basic mistakes, soft underbelly aye Ill give yo them. 

The referee was completely incompetent today and we have every right to complain about him and his officials. 

[vikingTON]

Let's start with the positives: the way that we played both with and without the ball with ten men today was highly commendable. Unfortunately at no point did I really think we were going to score (which makes conceding the 2nd goal just after half time so risible), but there was clearly a generally well-coached side out there, quite a few very good individual performaces in vain - and some pretty decent football played too. 

We are not some Jonatan Johansson level mess, and I expect us to pick up more than enough points at home to ensure our usual 7th place finish. 

But while the referee certainly restricted our chances of winning today's gane, he was not responsible for any of the three ludicrously soft goals that confirmed that we would lose it. Two increasingly persistent problems explain this:

1) The 2nd and 3rd goals come yet again from set pieces - when Murray started the job, we shipped even more and even more risible set piece goals at Ochilview. So why the fuck are we not at the very least playing two actual centre backs, whose training and skill set is to deal with that type of situation?

With Wilson at centre back rather than having Owens there and Wilson in front of him, our midfield before the red card looked like this:

McPherson   Gillespie

Moffat    Lyall      Garrity

This selection partly explains why we are so soft as shite. None of the players above are chucking it, but they simply don't have the required physicality or tactical discipline to stop us from coughing up big chances - particularly at set pieces. 

To have that failure exposed at Ochilview is one thing: to field a similar team lacking in the required physicality at Airdrie today shows no serious attempt to resolve the problem. Organisation at set pieces is an issue too, but to not even have the physicality is inexplicable. 

2) The first goal has been boiling my piss since the final whistle, and now I finally know why: it exposes the failure of our formation.

4-2-3-1 is gubbins. Leaving aside the reality that it is so dated and predictable a setup at this level that you should be writing the team sheet in cuneiform, it is opposed to any possible strengths that we have in our current squad. The whole point of a 4-2-3-1 is to sacrifice a player in the middle of the park to have an extra, silky attacker linking up with the forward to produce liquid goals - we have nothing of the required quality in the opposition half to justify this. Whatever 3 attacking midfielders we field each week will be lucky to get 5 goals and assists each for the season - as a trade off, the end product is nowhere near good enough to risk losing control of the central midfield. 

And since the Lindsay-Murdoch partnership - the only time we have made a 4-2-3-1 work at this level - we also don't have the quality, legs and tactical awareness to run a game with a central midfield two. We tried this with Wilson and Lyall at the start of last season under Imrie - it failed. The switch that stabilised our results last season was dropping Blues back, to make a central midfield three.

This season (and I may be excluding some other combinations), we have tried Wilson and Blues in a central midfield two - it failed. We have tried Wilson and McPherson there - it failed. Now we are for some reason trying McPherson and Gillespie (4th game in 14 days) there - and it is failing. The equaliser today is a carbon copy of the type of soft as shite goal we were conceding at the start of last season, in the same formation. An acre of space is presented in the central area just outside our box, for the opponent to take an unpressured pot shot at the corner of our goal. And oh look, it goes in. 

The league leaders are coming to town next Saturday. We need something that Imrie was usually very good at producing, which is a 'back to basics' reset of the team. Actual defenders back in logical defensive roles, packing out the middie of the park first, no stupid errors or soft goals. Saint Johnstone may well still win the game, but I want to see Murray respond to the reality that 6 goals conceded in 2 games to mediocre opposition requires action. 

[GiGi]

3 hours ago, James said:

I’m fed up hearing complaints about the referees tbh.

No one is out to get Morton FFS and many of these that the stand is howling about are understandable decisions. Not to mention some of these attempts at patter…

Fact is the first two goals today are basic mistakes. And while we look far better as an attacking threat under Murray, we have a soft underbelly. Much of which comes from playing two in centre midfield - in modern game it concedes too much space to the opposition and leaves you second to many loose balls.

Expect we may see Owens and Lopata-White at the back next week with Wilson into midfield with Gillespie and McPherson. Who knows who plays upfront now, daft tackle from Main knowing the kind of challenge there ref considers a red.

I'm fed up dealing with these incompetent referees tbh. We've been totally done over today in a key game we likely wouldn't have lost without that dick in the middle. 

[RossMcC1874]

Wasn't at the game so only my thoughts based on the highlights.

Good first goal really nice ball by Wilson and a clever run and finish by Garrity. 

I think the red card is harsh for Ballantyne yes there is force and it's late but he isnt off the ground and its not two footed I think the ref has been too quick to get that out. 

We played some decent stuff from the highlights and didn't throw in the toilet but soft defending for all of the goals the first one is a good hit even if Gillespie can maybe foul him but you aren't expecting him to ping it from 25 yards. 

Then its just a case of people not picking up their man and being soft at defending.

Main is just a clown what an earth is he thinking doing that, red card all day should be fined for that absolutely madness. I have not been overly impressed with him TBH holds the ball up alright but other than that doesn't really look a goal threat, the sooner Brophy is back the better. 

The rest of the squad now need to step up massive two home games the next few weeks its still so tight up and down the league so we really cant afford another few defeats. 

[BishopBrennan]

10 hours ago, James said:

I’m fed up hearing complaints about the referees tbh.

No one is out to get Morton FFS and many of these that the stand is howling about are understandable decisions. Not to mention some of these attempts at patter…

Fact is the first two goals today are basic mistakes. And while we look far better as an attacking threat under Murray, we have a soft underbelly. Much of which comes from playing two in centre midfield - in modern game it concedes too much space to the opposition and leaves you second to many loose balls.

Expect we may see Owens and Lopata-White at the back next week with Wilson into midfield with Gillespie and McPherson. Who knows who plays upfront now, daft tackle from Main knowing the kind of challenge there ref considers a red.

We do lose soft, preventable goals, but there are also consistent issues with referees at this level. Both these points can be true at the same time. 

I'd say the issue stems back to VAR being implemented in the Premiership. We simply don't have enough strength in depth in the refereeing pathway to have 5 or 6 Cat 1 refs sitting in front of a TV every Saturday afternoon, and the Championship is suffering as a result. Too many young, inexperienced referees are being fast-tracked through the ranks to fill gaps in the refereeing pathway that only exist because VAR was introduced. 

Our vote against implementing VAR has definitely been vindicated in my opinion. 

 

[James]

9 hours ago, GiGi said:

I'm fed up dealing with these incompetent referees tbh. We've been totally done over today in a key game we likely wouldn't have lost without that dick in the middle. 

‘Done over’ how exactly?

Main is open and shut. Ballantyne I felt at the time had just about done enough to win the ball, but I was 40 yards away and it all happened quickly, so I was willing to give the referee the benefit of the doubt albeit I felt yellow would have been fairer had he felt it was a foul.

Seeing the highlights, while I still feel the ref might have gone with a yellow, I can see why he sends him off with it being so forceful regardless of whether Ballantyne got a bit of the ball before the man. The main thing for me is that it was just so needless, he had Strapp at halfway with his back to our goal and it’s not like nicking that ball was setting us up for a counter.

[dunning1874]

I didn't post anything during the game about it because I genuinely wasn't sure and wanted to see it back, but the highlights confirm that Ballantyne's tackling leg is completely on the ground, he hasn't missiled into it in midair the way Main later did for that stonewall red, and he clearly plays the ball.

I think a booking for that would be understandable for taking both man and ball and the speed of it although slightly harsh, a red is just a complete head loss of a decision.

[Chicken_Soup]

14 hours ago, James said:

I’m fed up hearing complaints about the referees tbh.

No one is out to get Morton FFS and many of these that the stand is howling about are understandable decisions. Not to mention some of these attempts at patter…

Fact is the first two goals today are basic mistakes. And while we look far better as an attacking threat under Murray, we have a soft underbelly. Much of which comes from playing two in centre midfield - in modern game it concedes too much space to the opposition and leaves you second to many loose balls.

Expect we may see Owens and Lopata-White at the back next week with Wilson into midfield with Gillespie and McPherson. Who knows who plays upfront now, daft tackle from Main knowing the kind of challenge there ref considers a red.

If you’re generally not bothered by how much referees are ruining the game, I envy you. The standard is absolutely abysmal.

As stated above, we have a unique problem at our level with guys promoted above their experience and ability due to VAR. I remember we were given a top level ref in the last game away to Airdrie after we’d been on a run of horrendous decisions and the ease with which he managed the game was notable. The fact I remember that clearly shows how rare it is.

Their unaccountability means we now have a group of guys who are absolutely gasping for a little bit of power and attention on a Saturday afternoon, who are miles out their depth and who aren’t held to account whatsoever for their level of performance.

While they aren’t deliberately targeting any one team, we have been on the worse side of it this season. And they are often deliberately hindering our enjoyment of the game simply because they can. They might be protected from any sort of official reproach but they should not be given a free pass by the fans.

[Mr.Blue]

54 minutes ago, James said:

‘Done over’ how exactly?

Main is open and shut. Ballantyne I felt at the time had just about done enough to win the ball, but I was 40 yards away and it all happened quickly, so I was willing to give the referee the benefit of the doubt albeit I felt yellow would have been fairer had he felt it was a foul.

Seeing the highlights, while I still feel the ref might have gone with a yellow, I can see why he sends him off with it being so forceful regardless of whether Ballantyne got a bit of the ball before the man. The main thing for me is that it was just so needless, he had Strapp at halfway with his back to our goal and it’s not like nicking that ball was setting us up for a counter.

Great to have hindsight and that perspective rather than making split second decisions.

Apart from the 2 red cards the referee was happy to give the benefit of the doubt of any decisions to Airdrie. Yes as Murray said we gave them decisions to make but the performance of the officials was absolutely honking.

Strapp is excellent at winning free kicks and making the most of them. He done it for us for years and he's done it again. Regardless of the amount of contact he knows what he's doing. Going down holding onto his leg, rolling about and being as vocal as he can. 

I agree with VT in that we are far too soft in the spine of the team. We need proper centre backs playing and ideally getting shug back into midfield and blues in when he's fit. Maybe ever Kian Taylor. McPherson is fine with the ball but isn't physical enough and Gillespie plays within his limits given his age and fitness. 

I also think the keeper needs to do better for all three goals having watched the highlights. Defensively losing 6 goals in 2 games against teams below us in the league isn't good enough. If something doesn't change we are going to see a few doings in the coming weeks.

[DumfriesTon]

Having watched the highlights, serious question marks on Johnson for all three goals, especially goals 2 and 3. They seem to go straight through him. Any updates on when Storer might be back, it at all?

I thought we’d turned a corner but the last two games are evident that we really need to just stumble our way to 8th and get rid of the majority of this squad. Overall, they’re just not very good. With the run of games we have, I’d imagine it’s going to be squeaky bum time in those last 4 games of the season. 

[SpoonTon]

It's difficult to replace your goalkeeper at this point in the season. It's always likely to be a downgrade, and that's what we're finding at the moment. 

Apart from that I don't think there's a huge issue in the game apart from the Ballantyne sending off (which I'm not even sure is a foul) and not having a functioning striker. Main was stupid diving in like that, and he even mostly missed the man (which sums up his overall accuracy). I feel for him a bit, cause he looks like he's trying but is woefully off the pace. 

With Main missing next week, and a difficult match against a team we've struggled against, it's time for Wilson to move up into midfield and a centre back to replace Main in the starting 11. 

[GiGi]

We might be short on fit centre halves if Lopata-White is out for a while. Which is a shame because he looks very good. 

[Ferguson]

Some serious discussions need to be had about the refereeing situation. What’s the repercussions for the referee who swung a vital game on a bizarre red card decision at 1-1? We’re also going to be missing a key player for the next 2 games at the fault of the referee. Said since day 1, VAR has sooked up any resource we had at our level (previously already incompetent) and left us with absolute garbage. Why is this charade still ongoing? Bin off VAR, spread the resource and sort this mess out. 

Hesitant to make this all about the ref as the goals we conceded are soft, but the game hinges on the red card after half an hour.